


Apart

by VelvetSky



Series: Soft [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy misses Wanda, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Light Angst, Nightmares, Pietro is looking after his sister, Wanda's mind is a little scrambled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:27:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 4,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23020051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelvetSky/pseuds/VelvetSky
Summary: Pietro arrives to care for Wanda after her rough mission and Darcy feels a bit lonely so she writes Wanda some love notes.
Relationships: Darcy Lewis/Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff
Series: Soft [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637941
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Day 1 - Darcy

**Author's Note:**

> For the Darcyland Femslash February. Day 14 prompt is Love Letters.
> 
> This fic follows Stillness.
> 
> Unbetaed, all mistakes are my own.
> 
> Note: This fic has many chapters, but they are all very short chapters. Done by design of how the story is told.

Darcy woke to a knock on the door and Pietro’s voice calling Wanda’s name. There was only a hint of light breaking in the sky, he’d probably just landed from the mission he’d been out on with a couple of others for the past several days. When she opened the door he rushed right in to see Wanda. 

“She’s still asleep. It was a rough night.” Darcy spoke in a hushed tone following Pietro back to the bedroom. 

“I heard. I can take it from here. Thank you for watching her last night.” He spoke just as quietly before zipping around the place. Darcy barely had time to blink when he was suddenly standing in front of her holding her clothes from last night.

Darcy took the clothes but didn’t move. “I can help.” 

“Look, Darcy, I appreciate you looking after her when I couldn’t be here, and I know you care about her, but these things, they get in her mind. They can take her a few days to clear them out again, and I know how to get her through it. This is how we do this, okay.” It wasn’t really a question, or even a suggestion, more like a command and Pietro’s hand was on her back guiding her out the door.


	2. Day 1 - Wanda

The light felt blinding and everything hurt, her head most of all. Wanda wasn’t sure where she was, her hands reached out but they got caught in something. “Where are they?! Help them!”

She couldn’t see anything. Where had the children gone? One moment she was following a child into a damaged building full of other children and then a blast of light. 

“Wanda!”

Someone grabbed her and she jumped.

“Wanda? Breathe, you’re home.” 

“Pietro?” Her brother’s face started to come into focus.

“Yes. It’s okay. You’re home, in your bed.” His hand lightly rubbed her back. 

Her bed? Her hands. They were tangled in the sheets. Wanda pulled her hands free of the sheet and pressed them into the bed. “Home?”

Pietro kissed her temple and continued to brush his hand up and down her back. “Were you dreaming?”

“Dreaming?” Her hand rubbed her face. “Yes, dreaming. Right? Was it all a dream?”

“Yes, you were dreaming.” 

Wanda sighed and reached out for Pietro and quickly found herself wrapped in a hug. She tried to just breathe.


	3. Day 2 - Darcy

It was the fifth time Darcy had walked past Wanda’s door that day, and it was only lunchtime. She’d been doing her best to go about her day as she would have, except for the past several weeks that usually involved seeing Wanda at least briefly to say hello. Even before they started dating that was common actually.

This was the first time in over a week she’d slept in her own bed, given the night Wanda was away, Darcy didn’t really sleep, and that hour she did nod off for was sitting with her head on her desk in her office. Sleeping in her own bed hadn’t been much comfort though when all she thought about was how Wanda was doing. 

She didn’t want to disrupt the ‘twin time’. She knew the twins were close, and since the start of her relationship with Wanda, every couple of days Wanda and Pietro had twin time, where they would spend an hour or more locked away from everyone else. Wanda said they usually just sat and talked, shared their thoughts, feelings, memories, and sometimes listened to music or watched a movie together. This just was a much longer span of twin time, but she supposed that made sense after what Wanda experienced.

It wasn’t exactly a relationship Darcy could relate to though, she wasn’t that close with any of her family. Not that she had a rift with anyone, but they were all very much their own people. They’d gather sometimes for events or holidays, and kept in touch with occasional calls, messages, emails, that sort of thing, but it wasn’t as consistent or deep. Darcy thought it was nice that the twins had such a bond. They’d been through a lot together, and for a long time were each other’s only reliable companion. She never wanted to hinder that relationship. It didn’t stop her from missing Wanda though.

Wanda’s phone wasn’t on, Darcy had tried to call and it didn’t even ring just straight to voicemail, so she sent a text, hoping maybe at least Wanda might check it and read it later. “Love you, hope you’re feeling better. <3”

The hours passed as Darcy went back to work and even lingered far later than usual in the office to try to stay occupied. No reply messages. Before bed, still none. When she woke up at four am and checked her phone, still none.


	4. Day 2 - Wanda

Wanda thought her eyes were open, but it was dark. So dark. She felt a weight against her, something confining her. Was she trapped? Where was she? 

Her hands reached out for what was there. To one side was something mostly flat, to the other was nothing, but she felt pinned. She couldn’t see her own hands though. Wanda tried to push away. 

“Help! Where am I? Is anyone there?”

She heard screams in the distance and a flash of light.

She screamed.

“Wanda.” The voice was right in her ear.

She jumped and tried to turn around and she finally saw shapes in the dark. There was light coming from somewhere.

“You’re okay. It was a dream.” Pietro’s voice.

“It was a dream?” Her hands gripped his face then slid around, feeling every feature. It was Pietro. 

“Can you tell me what was happening?” His hands rubbed her back and brushed her hair from her face. 

“I - I don’t know. I couldn’t see anything. I was trapped. Then there was screaming from somewhere.” Wanda’s head hung down and shook. 

“Okay, it’s okay. You’re safe.” He pulled her a little closer and wrapped his arms around her. 

Wanda gulped a breath and started to cry.


	5. Day 3 - Darcy

Another day was wearing on and still no signs of emergence from Wanda’s room, nor any reply to her message the evening before. Darcy knew it was a rough one, and maybe she needed some time, and with Pietro back she was taking comfort in whatever they always did together to get through times like this. She just wished she could help, or at least know how Wanda was doing. 

Darcy felt like she shouldn’t have been feeling so anxious. Wanda was safe and being cared for by someone who absolutely would take care of her. It shouldn’t be important that she be part of that, right? Just so long as it was happening and Wanda was being helped through this. But Darcy got anxious in situations like this where she didn’t know what was happening and couldn’t get information to calm her or do anything to help. 

So Darcy resorted to old school means of communication. A note written in pen on paper, and slipped under Wanda’s door. 

“Wanda,  
I don’t want to intrude on your twin time. Just wanted to say I love you and I’m thinking about you. - Darcy”


	6. Day 3 - Wanda

“Do you remember what happened on the mission?” Pietro was making her dinner while she sat at the small breakfast bar in her kitchen. Wanda was usually the one to cook, she was a little better at it, but moreover cooking was something that she enjoyed, it soothed her. But in times like this, Pietro made perfectly tasty food to make sure she stayed fed.

Wanda was usually the caregiver between the two of them, but when Wanda got rocked mentally, the tables turned until she regained her strength. That much she knew. “Some of it. I think. But maybe it is being confused with things that happened to us?”

“How so?” He kept glancing over his shoulder at her. 

“Last night, before I woke, I felt pinned, trapped. Like when we were kids.”

Pietro stepped around to hug her. She knew he knew exactly how that felt, he’d been there too. “What I heard about the mission sounded intense. I’m not surprised it brought up those memories.”

Wanda nodded, her mind couldn’t seem to help wading back through all that hurt and chaos. 

“You are feeling a little better now though, yes?”

“Maybe.” Wanda shrugged and felt Pietro squeeze her a little tighter after.


	7. Day 4 - Darcy

Darcy tried to get through the day without worrying, yeah, that was a joke. She was worrying about how Wanda was before she’d even opened her eyes. 

There was a debrief meeting, finally, about the mission. Usually mission debriefs happened upon arrival if everyone was alert, or the following morning if everyone needed a little rest first. This one had waited four whole days to happen. Wanda was the only one who had been there who didn’t attend. And hearing people like Steve and Sam and Natasha speak about what they saw happen and the way their voices even cracked here and there did nothing to make Darcy worry less about Wanda and what that scene did to her highly sensitive, empathic mind. 

She had told herself early in the day that she would let it be for today. But by the time evening came, she was slipping another note under Wanda’s door. 

“Wanda,   
I love you. I caught the mission debrief and all I could do was think about you and how you were doing. I know you need your twin time to straighten out your head and all. If you need anything at all from me, just let me know. And know that I’m thinking about you all the time.   
Love and Kisses, Darcy”


	8. Day 4 - Wanda

Wanda sat in the bath. Pietro forced her to go in after she woke up from a nap screaming. It was the children again. She was following the child to the building when an explosion hit compromising the building. The screaming and cries.

The wreckage. The chaos. The pain. 

The room blurred a little and Wanda felt the tears. 

“Wanda! How are you doing, in there?”

Wanda sat up with a start, she’d drifted. “Okay.” Though she wasn’t sure how loud her voice was.

“Don’t forget to use soap!” Pietro’s voice called from the hallway.

She tried to lay back and curl up at the same time. Not quite working, her fingers reached out and fumbled for the soap but it just wound up sliding across the floor. She didn’t try to retrieve it. In a better state she could have done so with her abilities, without leaving the tub. But she couldn’t seem to grasp her powers at the moment, and she didn’t want to move.


	9. Day 5 - Darcy

It felt like it would have been easier if Darcy had some kind of idea how long she’d be waiting for Wanda to reemerge. Then at least she wouldn’t be waking up everyday with the anticipation that maybe it would be the day, only to find it wasn’t. But she supposed dealing with stuff like this didn’t quite work on a timetable.

She asked around the rest of the Compound if anything like this happened before she’d arrived. Darcy heard once, when they first found Wanda and Pietro and they joined the Avengers. It had been a very messy fight which had been hard on everyone, but perhaps especially Wanda, and the twins had kind of sequestered themselves for a week or two. Everyone else was concerned of course about how Wanda was doing, but didn't seem worried about the fact no one had seen the twins in days. Though Natasha apparently had noticed evidence that Pietro had raced out to snag more food from the commons and his own room to bring back to Wanda’s, but that had only taken seconds because it was Pietro. Natasha had only noticed when she was reviewing Friday’s security logs from the previous day.

Darcy couldn’t quite stop herself from writing another note. 

“Wanda,  
I know clearing your mind doesn’t work on a timetable, I just wish I knew when I might get to see you, even for a few minutes to say hi and give you a hug. I’m missing your sweet face. I hope you’re starting to feel better, maybe you or your brother could at least let me know that much. Everyone would like to know that much anyway. We all care about you. I love you.  
Hugs, Kisses, and Love,  
Darcy”

She didn’t know if she’d get a reply or how long this hibernation would last, but she had to try. Darcy felt bad for feeling a little shut out, Wanda was the one struggling, but she couldn’t seem to help how she felt.


	10. Day 5 - Wanda

“No! No!” Wanda tried to reach out for the child but she couldn’t grab hold. 

“Wanda.” She heard her name from somewhere far away as something tried to grab hold of her. 

Her arm flailed out and she screamed. Then she was falling. When she hit the ground she opened her eyes. 

“Wanda! Are you okay?” 

She looked up to see Pietro leaning over, looking down at her. Wanda looked around her trying to focus her eyes through a blur and the dark. 

She was on the floor. Pietro was looking down at her from the bed. “What’s happening?”

“A dream. You were dreaming and started moving around and fell out of bed.” Pietro slipped off the bed to the floor next to her, brushing his hand over her head and putting an arm around her. 

She leaned in and cried.


	11. Day 6 - Darcy

Early the next morning there was a knock on Darcy’s door. It seemed too quick and sharp to be Wanda, but not so much so that it sounded like an emergency. 

“Pietro?”

“I think she’s improving, but she’s still kind of distant. Every time she sleeps it’s almost a reset. She dreams about it all again. It will take a little more time. Hopefully not too much, okay?” He spoke quickly, but looked a little tired, which was strange for Pietro. 

“Okay.” When it looked like Pietro was about to go, Darcy grabbed for his arm. “But she’s read my notes then?”

“No, not yet. She’s not really focused enough to read anything. I read them. I am glad she’s got someone else to care about her. I hope in a few days she’ll be in a place where she’ll benefit from seeing people who care about her.” Before Darcy could say anything in response he dashed away. The soft door click from down the hall told her he was back inside Wanda’s room again. 

She had wanted to ask if the notes were a bother, if she should keep sending them. Darcy tried to refrain but late that night she had to say something. Maybe these were more about soothing herself, but she hoped maybe when Wanda was focused enough to take in even a little of the world beyond Pietro, then maybe she’d like reading the notes and knowing she and the others were thinking of her. 

“Wanda,  
Maybe it’s redundant to keep saying I love you, but it doesn’t stop it being true. Pietro told me today you’re still struggling which makes my heart ache for you. I wish I could hold you and help you, but I know Pietro’s got you. I hope you’ll at least feel able to read these notes soon and know you’re loved not just by me, but by everyone here. And when you’re ready for visitors, I am anxious to see you.  
Love, Darcy”


	12. Day 6 - Wanda

“Hey, eat before it gets cold.” Wanda looked up when her brother nudged her and smiled before sitting down next to her with his food. 

It probably hadn’t been long then, but Wanda had no idea how long she’d zoned out for. She remembered sitting down and nodding at whatever he’d suggested to eat. 

Now she was holding a spoon poking at her food. She didn’t remember the food being placed in front of her, nor did she recall picking up the spoon. Her mind felt so scrambled, it couldn’t disengage from the images she wished most to be able to forget, though she suspected she never would. And finding anything else in her mind was difficult.

“You need to eat and I am not going to feed you.” 

Wanda wasn’t sure if she drifted off again or not but she nodded at her brother and tried to eat.


	13. Day 7 - Darcy

There wasn’t enough work to do. It wasn’t keeping Darcy as occupied as she needed to be to keep herself from wondering and worrying more than anything else. She took a walk around the Compound and laid out in the grass, but none of it really cleared her mind. 

Everything felt like going through motions and trying not to start crying, she tried to do that in the morning and evening in her room. Though she did close her office door at one point that afternoon and cried for a few minutes. 

She got as far as laying down in bed and turning off the lights before giving into her need to write another note. She just hoped they weren’t terribly selfish of her to do. 

“Wanda,  
I love you and miss your sweet face. I hope you are feeling safe and warm. I hope somehow you can feel all the love and comfort I am trying to send your way.  
Hugs and Kisses, Darcy”

Darcy wanted so much to comfort Wanda, though she was starting to worry she was the one in need of comfort.


	14. Day 7 - Wanda

“Wanda?”

Someone was saying her name, but where was it coming from? Everything was so dark.

“Wanda? What’s going on?”

Wanda turned toward the voice as it came closer and her eyes focused enough to make out Pietro. “Pietro, it’s you.” She sighed and relaxed back again.

“Why are you up?”

“What?” Wanda looked around again finally noticing anything beyond Pietro. She was sitting in her oversized chair facing the windows. It was dark outside.

“It’s the middle of the night. Why don’t you come back to bed?” 

“Bed?” Yes, she had a bed. A bed in a safe place. But what else? “Something feels missing.” 

“What do you mean? What’s missing? Something from the mission?”

“I don’t know.”

Pietro knelt down on the floor in front of her and took her hands. “Wanda, I am starting to worry. You usually at least start to focus better by now. It’s been seven days. You should be talking to me more, seeming more like yourself. When we’ve stayed this long locked away it’s just that you’re a little tired and wanting to linger somewhere safe a little longer. Not still waking up confused and looking distant every time I look at you.”

He spoke slowly and it scared her. Pietro was never slow except with her, and the more unsteady she was, the more he slowed. She looked around the room and then back at him. “Seven days? Am I missing something?”

“I don’t know. But if there’s anything else I can do to help you, just tell me.” He kissed her hands and she could see and feel the worry coming off him. “Everyone misses you.”

“Everyone?” Wanda looked into her mind and all she could seem to see were the images from that mission of the children and other innocent people frightened and in pain. All she could feel was the flood of emotions they felt, until she managed to turn it off and just drift. 

“Yeah, everyone here at the Compound. Our friends. Do you remember that we have friends now?” He looked worried, she felt waves of worry coming off him. It made her worry too. 

“Home and friends. It sounds familiar?”

“Do you know where we are right now?”

“Home?”

“Do you know where that is?”

Wanda slowly shook her head. Her mind was reaching for answers but all it kept finding was chaos and screaming. Crying children and explosions. Darkness and flashes of light. 

She saw Pietro’s lip quiver before his head dropped to her lap as he held onto her. She felt the fear and the sadness. She felt his memories of their past. She found herself gasping and sobbing.


	15. Day 8 - Darcy

Darcy had trouble getting out of bed that morning. She got into the office late and a little scattered. After less than two hours she went back to her room in tears. Stopping outside Wanda’s door, she’d stood for a while, seeing if she could hear anything or feel anything. It wasn’t as nice a note, but she took out a small pad and pen and wrote a brief note and slipped it under the door.

“Wanda, I love you. - Darcy”

When Clint asked what she was doing she jumped and hurried off to her room. 

She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and only when her stomach rumbled did she think to eat a banana and that was it. She tried taking a shower but mostly just stood there under the water until it felt like it was losing its warmth. 

Sleep didn’t come easy, Darcy wound up wandering around the room and finally fell asleep hugging a pillow.


	16. Day 8 - Wanda

“Did a bath help this time?” Again, Pietro had to usher her in and close the door for her to take a bath. He’d had to remind her again about the soap too. At least this time she’d gotten to using it some before it slipped out of her hands.

“Maybe.” Wanda hoped the mellowing chaos might be progression. She still wasn’t quite sure where ‘here’ was though. Just that it wasn’t where all the pain had happened. But she’d still woken with a start from a dream. She’d been trying to help someone injured out of the street. She didn’t know what happened to that person after that. And she wasn’t sure if that was because she didn’t know, or her mind just couldn’t find the memory.

“Are you hungry? Might sleep better if you’re not doing it on an empty stomach.” 

“Okay.” She wasn’t sure if she was hungry, but if Pietro thought she should eat, she’d try to eat. Wanda picked up a small piece of paper off the floor. “What’s this?”

Pietro only sort of glanced and shrugged as he started fixing her food.

Wanda couldn’t really focus her eyes enough to actually read it, but there was something written on it. “Is it a note?”

Pietro plucked it from her fingers and smiled. “Yes. It’s from Darcy. She says she loves you. She’s written you a few others. Maybe you want to see them?”

“Darcy!” Wanda started to move and only Pietro grabbing hold of her hand stopped her from racing out the door.

“Darcy’s fine she’s in her room. Probably sleeping. It’s the middle of the night.” Wanda thought her brother looked slightly surprised. 

“Darcy’s asleep? In her room?”

“Yes. I can read you her notes though.”

“Yes.” Wanda pulled on her brother’s hands though she didn’t know where she was trying to lead him. 

“I’ll get them and you sit down, or better yet, go get in bed and I’ll bring you your food and read the notes to you there, okay?”

“Okay.” Wanda nodded softly feeling a warmth tickling inside her chest. She remembered Darcy. She loved Darcy. How could she have not remembered?


	17. Day 9

Darcy was slow to rise, it was getting harder with each passing morning to make herself get moving. It took her awhile to even get from the bed to the bathroom to her little kitchen area. She managed some toast. It took yet more effort to get dressed and get herself to her door. 

Wanda couldn’t say she was all good, her mind was still fuzzy and scattered and the dreams hadn’t left. But it wasn’t the only thing her mind kept thinking about anymore. She was thinking about Darcy too. As soon as she’d woken up enough to clear her eyes and registered seeing her room, she also decided she needed to see Darcy today. Pietro had tried to tell her to stay in bed and he could have Darcy come by, but Wanda didn’t want to wait that much longer. And after all those notes, Wanda wanted to sort of repay her. She wasn’t focused enough to write a note, so instead she simply sat down in the hall in front of Darcy’s door. A few of the other Avengers had passed by while she waited and checked in on her. Pietro stood down the hall watching in case Wanda needed him. 

It took Darcy only an extra moment to realize there was someone in her doorway. “Wanda!”

Before Wanda could even try to get up Darcy had dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around Wanda. Wanda actually felt herself smiling as her arms wrapped tight around Darcy. “I love you too, Darcy.” After all those notes, Wanda felt like she needed to tell Darcy all she could how much she loved her.

“And I love you.” Darcy pressed a firm, lingering kiss to Wanda’s cheek.

Wanda shifted and then fell backwards taking Darcy with her. They both shrieked a little before starting to giggle. Pietro looked down the hall, concerned for a moment until the giggling got going. Darcy started to try to push herself up, but Wanda wrapped her legs around her too and felt Darcy relax into her. It felt good to Wanda, having Darcy on her and wrapping herself around her. Even in the middle of the hall. 

Darcy kept giggling for a few moments as it seemed Wanda didn’t want to move yet. She didn’t really care if anyone else thought it was a little weird, laying tangled in the hallway. It had been over a week since she’d seen Wanda, and she would happily lay just about anywhere with her.


End file.
